| 5 men accused of robbing a Western Dairies truck, one of whom is an employee of Western Dairies, were arraigned today at the magistrates court in Belize city.
All 5 men, 33 year old Deandre Mckoy, 28 year old Tarique Gillett, 24 year old Christian Castillo, 19 year old Emory Lino and 23 year old Willman Espinall were all charged jointly with conspiracy to commit robbery. Mckoy, Gillett, Castillo and Lino were all charged jointly with robbery.
The group all pleaded not guilty to the charges and were remanded to the Belize Central Prison until June 2, 2025. Espinal, Gillett and Mckoy were represented in court by attorney Oj Elrington who submitted on their behalf under the crime control and criminal justice act that the offense of conspiracy to commit robbery is not one of the offenses listed as an offense the court cannot grant bail for.
However the magistrate still denied bail on her own discretion. Elrington also requested to put on record that his client was allegedly beaten into handing over his cellphone. He told us more about this:
OJ Elrington, Attorney
"Our submission was that client Mr. William Espinal was not in the same position since he was solely charged with conspiracy to commit robbery which we submitted did not fall under section 16 of the crime control and justice acts which prohibits a magistrate from granting from an accused to an accused. The learned magistrate agreed that it did not fall under section 16, however she submitted that she would exercise her discretion and not grant him bail still and so obviously now we're in the process of applying for bail for the defendants in the matter."
"Yes well my client has put on record, he told me that the he told me and he said that all he submitted when he was interviewed that he was beaten by the police and forced to open a phone and that he was he was subject to police abuse essentially that the police were trying to force him to make certain admissions which he did not agree with."
Reporter
"This client Mr. Espinal, is he one of the truck drivers for the company?"
OJ Elrington, Attorney
"Yes he is one of the persons who is a driver for western dairies I believe it is."
Espinal was also allegedly in possession of a firearm which is also why she chose not to grant him bail. Elrington gave more details on today's proceedings.
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